The Run
by Pillow Bosom
Summary: Follow-on from Wolfsbane! Edward has Bella Captive! Ah no! Lemons and language. I don't own anything Twilight.
1. Chapter 1

I sat at a Formica diner table, hunched over a plate of eggs on toast, forcing myself to eat, my mind spinning. Edward watched my every move. His eyes were golden, his posture relaxed.

Every instinct I had was telling me to run, to escape. But where could I go? Edward would catch me within seconds, even if I had a head start. I tried to calm myself down, to pay attention to my surroundings. I needed to bide my time, hope that he let down his guard. I glanced up to a clock on the wall. 3am. It had been almost twelve hours.

I could feel my shoulders hunched up around my ears. My jaw was clenched, my fingers like claws. Fight or flight… but I could do neither. Edward had made it clear that he would hurt anyone that tried to help me. I shuddered, the image of Julie's poor broken body lying on the floor sprang unbidden into my head. I had to do this myself. I couldn't ask for help without risking Edward finding out… and anyway what would I say? "That guy over there had kidnapped me, but _don't think about it! _He can read your thoughts"? you can't whisper with your mind.

How did this happen? I put my head in my hands, the eggs threatening to come back up.

"Bella, Love…" My head snapped up, I felt my lips pull back, exposing my teeth in a snarl.

"You can't call me that." I growled. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck, I dropped my head and stared at him from beneath my eyebrows. I could feel my lip twitching, my fingers convulsed into a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the table. I winced as my bad hand protested.

Edward's eyes widened as shock flew across his face. He leaned back into his seat and dropped his gaze, rearranged his face into a smooth mask. "I would never hurt you. You know that." His voice was low, almost a whisper.

"You _are_ hurting me." Anger shook my words. Edward looked up at me from beneath his lashes.

"You don't understand. This… this isn't to hurt you. I just need you to give me a chance." I gaped at him, the insanity of his words rendering me completely speechless. "I know you hate it when I say this, but it's for your own good. Jacob is dangerous." He pointed to the dark V shaped scar that swallowed the back of my left wrist and hand. "This is not something that we can negotiate on, I _will not _have you around him."

"Fuck you." I spat through clenched teeth.

Edward's face remained calm. "It seems he's had a negative impact on your language, too." A small smirk played on his lips.

A bone chattering fury rose up in my chest. Wrenching up the sleeve of my jumper, I pointed to the black bruise around my arm. My voice grew louder as I imitated his voice, a simpering falsetto. "I would _never_ hurt you Bella, you know that…"

With a deep breath, Edward pinched the bridge of his nose. "Keep your voice down." He stated simply.

"Take me home." My teeth wouldn't part, my words hissed between them. "Or just leave me here, I'll find my own way home. Just fucking _leave me alone."_ What the hell did he think that kidnapping me was going to achieve?

"I can't do that, Bella. You know that." He sighed, and leaned in towards me. Despite myself, I leaned away. "You're making a mistake. Your life is so short… so easily ended. I can't have you wasting it on that _mongrel._"

"That _mongrel_ is _good_ for me. He makes me a bigger person." Tears sprang to my eyes. Jacob. "He doesn't make me feel small, or insecure, or incapable." There was a sneer in my voice. '_Not like you.' _I added in my head.

Edward just sighed as he registered my implication, an irritating, arrogant noise. "We should go, if you're finished?" He gestured towards the plate in front of me. I nodded curtly, standing up.

"I need the bathroom." Edward made no move to stop me, so I stalked off towards the door with the little people signs on it.

I could have cried when I saw the pay phone stuck up on the wall in the corridor. I wanted to cling to it, to sob down the line until someone came to save me. But it was dangerous, Edward would definitely be able to hear me. One good thing about being a sheriff's daughter… Dad had coached me endlessly on keeping my head in a situation like this, on how to get home alive. I straightened my shoulders and took a deep breath through my nose as I passed the telephone. I had to get through this.

The windows in the bathroom were tiny, and only opened a few inches. I resisted the urge to tug on them, I couldn't be sure what Edward could hear, and I didn't want to put him on guard. I peed, splashed my face with cold water, and surveyed myself in the grimy mirror. My eyes were wide, bloodshot. There was a deep crease between my eyebrows and dark circles under my eyes. I dragged my fingers through my hair. Holding a deep breath, I closed my eyes, and tried to relax.

I felt heavy, hot hands on my shoulders, a warm breath on the part in my hair. '_You'll be fine, Baby. Come home to me.' _ My Jacob, My Sun. I needed to stay strong, I needed to keep on top of my fear, for as long as this took. I could out-smart Edward. I could do this.

I pulled up my tops and rubbed cold water against my skin, to try wake myself up. I blasted the tap on full and shoved my head under the hard cold jet of water, saturating my hair and the back of my neck. Gasping, I turned off the tap and fumbled for a handful of the coarse paper towels that were stacked up neatly on the bench top.

I scrubbed my hair and face dry, and threw the paper towels into the bin. My mind wouldn't stop whirling. I wished I had something to write with, so I could leave a note, asking for someone to get in touch with Dad, to tell him that I was okay. As long as Edward didn't kill me, or –I shuddered- turn me, I would be okay. I would wait this out, I would get home.

There was a light knock on the door. "Bella." Edwards thin voice came through the door. "Are you ready to go?" I fought back a wave of nausea, forced my feet to move. Terror tried to hold me back, my entire body revolted against moving towards him. But I needed to do this, to give myself the best possible chance of escaping later. Edwards face was smooth when I opened the door, his expression completely relaxed. I scowled automatically as he tilted his head slightly, his gaze roving around my face. My stomach lurched again, saliva pooled at the back of my mouth.

Spinning on my heel, I staggered back into a stall and threw up. Bile burnt my throat, lumps of eggs stuck at the back of my nose, making me cough and gag as I retched into the toilet. Once my stomach was empty, I slumped against the wall. My eyes were streaming, my head was pounding, and sweat had soaked through my T shirt, making my skin clammy.

My face lay against the cool wall, sweat tickling my eyebrows. Keeping my eyes closed, I fumbled for the toilet paper, and blew my nose, coughing as the bile burnt my sinuses. Cold fingers pressed against my jaw, my neck. I flinched, gulped against the desire to vomit again. '_Don't fuck this up' _I thought to myself. _'Let him think he'll win.' _ I froze, taking two slow, shaking breaths before I pulled slowly away from beneath Edward's long, stone fingers.

I let my eyes droop half closed when I moved my head to look up at him. I let my mouth go slack. "I'm tired." I murmured, letting my head nod slightly. Edward's face was soft, tender. A little jolt ran through me as I acknowledged my small triumph. I could fool him.

I let Edward lead me back to the car, tuck me in the front seat. I turned on the radio as we pulled out of the parking lot, twisting the dial until I found the radio station that Jake and I continually listened too. 'Our' station. Humming along softly to the Kinks, I closed my eyes and let my mind stretch, feeling much better after having eaten, even if I did throw most of it back up again.

I took myself into a space in my head I had discovered a few months ago, when I had been sitting on my front step, wondering what to do about my Jake/Edward situation. It was the place in my brain that allowed me to step outside of myself and look at the circumstances with detachment.

I needed to figure out a plan, how I was going to approach this, and I needed to stick to it. So. Edward wanted a chance. He figured that if he kept me with him long enough, whatever I had felt towards him would return. I suppressed a hysterical giggle. He wanted me to develop Stockholm's Syndrome.

I steeled myself, forced myself to look at things realistically. I would be held captive for a while, assuming he didn't kill me, or turn me. He wanted me to love him again, but to truly lull him into the assumption that I was growing romantic feelings for him, I would have to take my time. Months maybe? A year? He needed to leave me at some point, so he could hunt, but I had no idea where we were heading. For all I knew, he had bought himself a cabin in some cougar infested forest.

I couldn't plan for that now, but I could decide how I was going to act, in order to get Edward comfortable enough with me to leave me alone.

What kind of person did Edward think I was?

He thought I was pathetic. That much had always been clear. He thought I had some unrealistically high opinion of my own strength. Basically, he believed that I was as fragile as blown glass. So I suppose he thought I would crack soon, that my resolve could only last so long.

So I would keep up the anger for say… a week or two. Not too long, but not long enough for me to seem tired of fighting. I figured the best thing to do after that, would be to fall into a depression, and finally, let him Edward try to comfort me. I couldn't say how long that would take, I would have to play it by ear, try to learn as much about my surroundings as possible before I took off, but I could do it. I didn't want to be 'comforted' long enough for him to try make a pass at me.

I opened my eyes to look at him, his creepily perfect face silhouetted against the car window. I shivered.


	2. Chapter 2

Mike's POV

"Mike. You really should go home, try to get some sleep." Angela's hand lay on my shoulder. I shook my head, unwilling to talk in case I started to cry. She just sighed. "Okay. I have to go. Call me if you need a ride or anything, okay? I don't care if you wake me up." She leaned forward and squeezed my hand, which in turn was wrapped around Julie's pale fingers. "Okay." She murmured again, and left.

I stared into Julie's sleeping face. Normally round and flushed, she looked thin and pale, her eyes were blackened, and a thin crust of blood was still visible around one of her nostrils. It was 3.30am, almost twelve hours since_ this_ had happened. Snatches of her diagnosis flew about in my head. _Torn rotator cuff. Broken ribs. Cracked collar bone. Bruised spine. Fractured skull. _She would be okay, her mother had assured me, but she was beat up. She needed to be sedated so that she didn't move, so that she didn't wrench her spine and turn herself into a paraplegic. _Induced coma._

I didn't look up as Julie's mum, Tania, came back into the room. Without a word, she wheeled a little table to my elbow. A polystyrene cup of hot milky tea and a box of tissues sat on top of it. I wiped my eyes and sipped the tea as Tania fussed around Julie. She plumped her pillows and straightened her sheets, then leaned over her daughter to touch her face. She traced the black circles around Julie's eyes with her fingertips, she touched the plastic tubing that invaded Julie's nose and mouth.

I held out the box of tissues as Tania's tears fell onto the sheet, tucked up under Julie's arms. She took a Kleenex and smiled weakly at me as she collapsed into the chair on the other side of the bed. I held Julie's good hand, so Tania slid her hand beneath the bedding and clasped her knee. I could see the sheets move as her fingers felt up and down the length of a childhood scar on Julie's knee. I could picture it, I had felt that scar myself. A deep pink, it ran the width of her knee, puckering up the skin in a taut line, making a bulge in her flesh, like someone was pressing a length of twine hard against her.

I remembered when Julie had told me about it. It had been a game to her, her way of getting me to go further than kissing. We lay in bed, showing each other our various scars, telling each other the stories behind them, until she had taken off her top to show me the white line where her appendix had been removed, and later she had kicked off her jeans to show me the mark that her mother now touched.

She told me how she had been climbing a wall that she had been specifically told not to climb, and when her mother saw her, and yelled at her, she had gotten such a shock that she slipped, a shard of sharp volcanic rock, as sharp as glass, slid into her knee and opened it up, from one side to the other. "Like a grapefruit." She had said, laughing as I touched the scar, her leg curled up over my stomach, her head on my chest.

"Mike." Tania's soft voice broke into my reverie. "Julie's brain is swelling slightly where her head was hit." I felt my heart bolt in my chest as I searched Julie's face, trying to read the flat plane of her expressionless features. "It's easily treatable, she shouldn't be in any danger. But I have to give her a certain drug, one that won't react with any of the others she's getting." I nodded slowly, seemingly unable to talk. Tania was talking to me in a low, measured voice, like I was a child.

"I need to know if you two are having sex. If there's a chance she's pregnant, I'll do a test. The drug could hurt a fetus." With the slow, structured way that she was talking, I could have interrupted at any point, but shock seemed to have dulled my reactions.

I stared at her for a long moment before shaking my head. My throat rasped as I responded. "No. We aren't… we haven't…" I held my free hand up in an expression of hopelessness, too despondent to feel embarrassed. Tania nodded, smiling her apologetic smile, and turned her eyes back to her daughter. I tried to go back to that happy memory, of Julie's soft, warm skin against mine, tucked up in her sweet-smelling bed on a rainy night. But instead I couldn't stop replaying those horrible few minutes, over and over again in my head.

Edward's inhuman snarling, his insane strength. Bella's terrified face and shaking hands. I hadn't been able to rescue her, or Julie. And now Bella was gone, disappeared into the ether with a madman, while Julie lay broken and bleeding in a hospital bed.

Over and over. Julie's nails scrabbling at Edwards face as he wrenched her off his back, her small, perfect mouth making a tiny 'O' of surprise as she flew impossibly backwards across the wide hallway. How her right shoulder hit the lockers first, crumpling the metal. I saw her head bouncing sickeningly from where it had smacked against one of the locks, the door springing open with the force of the blow. I winced as I realized that I had watched her skull fracture.

Blood had instantly started to pour from Julie's nose as she lay slumped on the floor, surrounded by detritus from the damaged lockers. I remembered looking at her while Edward held me by the throat, my feet pedaling uselessly, pathetically at the air. I thought that Edward was going to kill me, and I wouldn't be able to help Julie, that she would bleed to death on the green linoleum floor.

I remembered Edward's grim, triumphant face as Bella walked petulantly out of the building with him. His face still perfect, not even flushed. His skin flawlessly pale, even where Julie had tried to gouge at him with her short nails. I remembered the unfeasible strength of his fingers around Bella's arm. As hard, as immovable as stone.

I paid no attention to Tania as she moved around Julie's bed, putting things into her I.V. A thought had entered my head, and suddenly I couldn't move around it.

_Edward Cullen is not human._


	3. Chapter 3

Jacob's POV

I just kept running. Twelve hours of the thrumming of my paws against the ground. Fury extended my stretch, gave so much power to my legs that even Leah didn't have a hope of keeping up with me. I felt like I was nothing but anger. I sank into it, got used to it, used it to make me more powerful. I reveled in the ache in my jaw, the ache from grinding my teeth hard for half a day, a physical pain to mirror the furious loss that filled me up. I didn't despair, I didn't mope, I raged. Trees felled before me, birds fled from my wrath. A fire of enraged loss flared around me, burning everything in my path, touching everything with my grief, my madness.

Sam was talking things over with the Cullen's, and as soon as he gave me permission, I was sprinting to their mansion in the woods, leaving the rest of the pack flailing in my wake. I didn't bother to try find some privacy as I came into view of the Leeches manor. I just phased on the run, tugging my shorts from their binding and stumbling, hopping as I pulled them on, still moving up the driveway.

Alice was standing silhouetted in the front door, her hands balled at her sides, her face a grim, perfect mask. She said my name softly as I skidded to a halt below her, my skin shivering in anger. "Jacob…" Her next breath was shuddering, shaking her tiny frame. "Bella…" Her face crumpled. If she could have cried, she would have.

Astonished, I stood stupidly below her. She wasn't hiding anything from me, she wasn't putting on a brave face or trying to be diplomatic. She was scared and ashamed and furious and restless. My anger lessened as I gaped at her, she wasn't going to try to protect her brother, I didn't need to be defensive.

"What's he going to do to her?" My voice wavered, cracked. What had she seen to make her so scared?

She held her hands up in a hopeless shrug. "Everything?" Her tiny fingers came to her temples, her body sagged. "He hasn't made up his mind. I've seen him try to kill her, turn her, woo her and… and… _violate_ her in the past twelve hours." Her mouth hung gracelessly open. "I can't keep seeing this." She shook her head, like she was trying to dislodge the visions from her minds eye. "I can't watch anymore."

Repulsion, despair ran through me. _Violate_ Bella? My Bella? That was somehow worse than turning her. At least she would be strong enough to kill him if she was turned. But to be… desecrated… If he _stole _that from her… My mind threw up a block, I couldn't think about that, not and still hope to function.

I must have been growling, or howling, because Alice made a hopeless little noise and shuffled a step towards me, her hand outstretched. "I'm so sorry I wasn't _looking_." Her voice was a pitiful mewl, saturated with guilt and shame. I just kept staring at her, willing myself to keep my head.

Esme appeared behind Alice, her hand on Alice's shoulder. "Go inside." She whispered, "Bring out the family. The rest of the pack will be here soon." Alice's tiny frame retreated into the house, strange gasps rattling in and out of her lungs.

Esme stood in front of me, stepping down a few of the stairs, so that our eyes were level.

"Edward is my son, Jacob." Her stern voice ignited the anger in me. I opened my mouth to snarl at her, but she leaned forward, talking into my face, just like a mother. "He hasn't adapted… The world has changed around him, but he has been unable to change with it."

Carlisle stepped out of the door to join his wife. His expression soft, understanding, but resolved. "She's right. Something in Edward has broken. We do not condone his actions, and we will do everything we can to help return Bella to you." He paused, thinking carefully about his next words.

Esme's small hand moved to twine her fingers through Carlisle's. "When you find them. Please try not to kill him. We would like to deal with this… in our own way…" her voice was small, and Carlisle looked down at her with a fond sadness.

He nodded. "We have our… peace keepers. We hope to find him a place, within a secure group, where he can live in an old way, a way that he understands."

My mind raced backwards, scrambling to remember something Bella had told me during one of our long, cozy nights in bed. "The Vol… Voltane? Volatile?"

Esme smiled at my faux pas. "Voltuari. Yes. They are ancient, and great friends of Carlisle's. I, we, understand that in attacking that young couple, and taking Bella, Edward has violated the treaty between your people and mine." She paused, glancing up at Carlisle for support. I held my breath, the wolf and the human at odds inside me.

"But we love him very much. We think he's sick. We aren't asking for you to give up any hope of retribution, or asking you not to protect yourselves if he attacks you, or your loved ones. We are asking, begging, that if there is the chance to do so safely, that you run from him, and let us take him to be disciplined by _our_ authorities." The last of her declaration spilled from her lips in a torrent of emotion.

I shook my head, much in the same way that Alice had earlier, trying to force my thoughts to lie down. "I'm not… I can't speak for the pack. I'm not Alpha, leader…" I trailed off. Could I do it, even if I wanted to? I had a heavy feeling that the only thing that could stop me from Killing Edward would be Sam's strict Alpha command.

Esme smiled her sad smile. "But they will listen to you. You are the one who had been stolen from. If you ask them… Please try. We love Bella, we will help you. Please try." Her eloquence had faltered, pure desperation for the life of her adopted son was pushing through the cracks in her dignified demeanor.

I gazed up at them. Her expression mirrored Charlie's face, earlier in the day, a desperate yearning to be assured that their children were safe. "I'll do what I can, Esme." I said, my voice low and ominous. "But Charlie only has one child... Bella is all he has…" My voice cracked, my mind was whirling. I felt sparks flying across my skin as I heard Sam and the others come up behind me.

Without any pleasantries, I spun around and started towards the trees. "I need to leave, I need to move. I can't…" I felt my desperation on my face.

Sam nodded. "Leave. We'll keep you in the loop… Run." I didn't wait for him to finish.

Running running running. Bella's face looming in my minds eye. My Bella.

I just kept running.


	4. Chapter 4

Bella's POV

I think we travelled for three days straight. Fatigue and shock made my perception hazy. I slept in the passenger seat, starting awake at every jolt. I desperately needed a shower, and to give my legs a proper stretch. My hips and legs ached from sitting for so long.

We changed cars three times, leaving the Volvo for a red sports car of some kind, then a dark green saloon that was deceptively fast, then a little black European hatchback. He didn't steal them, but I figured he had planned this very, very well, and bought them ahead of time, and hidden them.

I had glimpsed into his bag once or twice, and he had a bunch of passports and stuff, strapped together with a thick rubber band. I suppose you'd have to know where to get false documentation, if you had been passing yourself off as seventeen for a hundred years.

We were heading south, I had gathered that much. The air was hotter, heavier, the further we travelled. Edward drove back roads most of the way, avoiding major state line crossings and highways as much as he could. Taking such back-water routes that I barely even saw signs to tell me where I was.

On what I think was the third evening, I was staring out at the darkening landscape, trying to pretend that the man in the drivers seat was Jake, large and warm and safe. _This would be so romantic._ I sighed inside my head. The dark orange sky setting over the hills and hillocks of pasture, the sparse lines of meager trees sheltering thin cows, all bleached to yellow by the setting sun.

"I don't think that you and Jake _have_ imprinted, you know." Edwards reedy voice slid over from the driver's seat.

I chose to indulge him. Without shifting in my seat at all, I forced my voice to take on the jaded timbre of boredom. "And why is that, Edward?" I sounded like a fed-up mother talking to an obstinate child.

He hesitated for a second before plundering on with his ineffectual yammering. "Because you don't work that way." He said simply. When I didn't reply, he continued. "I can't hear your mind, and I don't think any other vampire talent that relied on using your brain would work at all. You aren't even afraid of us, not like how you should be. You _welcome_ monsters into your life, both us and the dogs…" I felt him turn to look at me, but I kept my eyes on the evening view outside of my temporary prison.

"If imprinting works in the way I think it does, then it couldn't work with you, because your mind is closed to our kind… to the… supernatural." He sounded proud, like he had talked through an argument that meant that Jake and I were no longer together. I could have laughed with the absurdity of it.

"Maybe I trust Jake." My voice was soft, like I had taken Edwards critical observations lightly. "Maybe the instinct that tells humans to fear _you, _closes my mind to you, but tells me to trust Jacob. Which in turn would explain why you can't hear me, but Jake can imprint on me."

Edward drove on in silence for a while, I could feel the waves of impatience rolling off him.

"Have you slept with him?" His voice was smooth, and I baulked at his sudden question.

"You insolent fucker." I growled under my breath. "How is that _any_ of your business?!" I had turned in my seat to face him, but pressed my back hard against the door, as far away from him as I could get.

"I want you." He murmured, his eyes turning to mine. I was speechless, my mouth open. "I could control myself, I know I could." He turned his eyes back to the road, and I realized that he was embarrassed. "I could do it, without hurting you."

I just shook my head. What on earth was going on here? I vaguely noticed that the car was slowing, he was pulling over. I stared at him, completely unable to process what he was telling me. He stopped the car, and took a deep breath. His hands came over to touch mine, and I caught myself staring into his eyes. His face inched towards mine. Exhaustion was suddenly lying over me, in a thick blanket that muffled his voice, dulled my senses.

He leaned towards me, his eyes drooping closed. His sweet breath hit my face, I felt my pulse hitch with that scent. I inhaled, deeply, and I saw Edward's eyes widen a bit as he registered my reaction. I inhaled again, and tried, as I had always done, to dissect it, to figure out _what_ he smelt like. Flowers, definitely, something sweet, night stock or jasmine. How could anyone's breath smell so _sweet_? It was almost cloying, it clung to the back of my nose, like old fashioned perfume, or… decay.

Alarm bells blazed at the back of my head. He smelt like a god-damned mortuary! "Don't." I gasped, as his lips were only hair's breadth from mine. "Don't… don't touch me."

He sighed, but didn't move away. With his lips so close they were almost brushing mine, and his syrupy breath on my face, he tried to sweet talk me. "I don't want it to be like this." He whispered. "I want us to be happy. I guess I hoped, that when you saw the lengths I would go to, to be with you, that you would at least soften towards me."

I felt my brow crease, but I stayed silent, something inside me was frozen. "I would… pleasure you. If you wanted me to. I wanted to wait, to save that part of myself until I was married… but I would give that up, for you."

I could see the absolute conviction in his eyes. He really believed that he was morally upstanding. The extent of his madness hit me, and I became very afraid. I had to make a decision, but I had no idea what to do. What was my plan again? Anger… right…

"I said fucking _DON'T_!" I screamed, shoving at his chest with the flats of my palms. "You fucking psycho! Get your goddamned hands _OFF ME!_" He leaned back into his seat, but kept facing me.

His face revealed no emotion, and it did nothing but fuel my anger. "You! You say you feel so strongly, and can't live in a world without me in it. You _say_ all this shit, and you go to the insane length of _KIDNAPPING ME_, but you won't even put your emotions on your face so that I can see them. You never have. The only things I have _ever_ been sure that you felt for me was blood lust and exasperation!"

I was panting by this time, so exhausted that I was seeing spots. "Bella…" Edwards voice was miserable, and I focused my eyes on him through the colors.

Oh.

He was almost unrecognizable, his suffering, his indecision, dragged his face into a macabre smearing of his normal features. Despite myself, I felt a jolt of pity. "Just because I have always _looked_ calm to you, it doesn't mean that I have felt that way." His voice came out in a wavering breath. "I was always afraid that you would leave me. I heard how other men thought about you, how they would take any opportunity to try and take my place. I couldn't handle it. I saw you in other peoples minds, they would picture you naked! They would picture you doing things with them, to them." He stopped, hesitated.

"And I should have done that stuff with you." He sounded resolute. "I should have touched you… and now you've been touched by that mongrel, he's had his hands on you! Can't you see… It's so much worse…" His face crumpled further with frustration. He had no idea how to explain his point of view in a way that I would accept.

"_EDWARD_!" I snapped, reaching the end of my tether. "Just shut the fuck up. I don't _care_ about your angst-y, jealous bullshit. You had your chance, and you blew it." I took a deep breath, unsure if I should make him angry or not. But the words came out before I could stop them.

"You're right, you _should_ have touched me, made me feel good, instead of making feel weak and pathetic. But you didn't, and I'm glad, because the way Jake touches me…" I groaned, long and low and sexual. My voice dropped into a sexy growl. "They way he touches me… his fingers are so hot, and so _big_…" I closed my eyes and wriggled deeper into my seat, ignoring Edward completely, I tried to escape. I conjured up the memory of Jake and I in the rabbit.

_We were on our way home after going to see a movie together. I still had those stupid bandages on my hand. Two hours in a dark theatre with Jake had driven me crazy, his fingers had absent mindedly traced the seam of my jeans, up and down my inner thigh, making me quake with excitement._

_Jake was driving, putting his hand on my knee between gear changes. "It's a pity you can't stay the night tonight." I groaned, putting my hand over his and sliding it further up my thigh. He let out his breath in a long, low sigh, and pulled the car into the next place he could. Which happened to be the Newton's store car park._

_He turned to me, and ran his hand all the way up my leg, pressing on the seam of my jeans with the side of his little finger. I whimpered as he used his other hand to rub my thigh, his hand moving in large, slow circles. "You should have worn a skirt." He whispered, and leaned over to kiss my neck._

"_Oh god." My voice cracked. "Touch me, please." He groaned in reply, and reached between my legs to push the seat backwards. I figured what he wanted to do, and moved my hand to turn the little wheel at the side of the seat. While I tried to make the back lie down as flat as it could, Jake fumbled with the button on my jeans, growling impatiently when his fingers blundered._

_Finally, he dragged them off me, I kicked off my slip-ons when he pulled my pants from my legs, and watched his face when he paused, stopping to look at me. He grabbed my hips, hefted me up the seat, so that my head was almost hanging off the top of the head rest, and stepped over the gearstick, to lie of top of me. His feet were braced against the floor, and he…_

"Please stop." Edward's voice yanked me brutally from my fantasy. My eyes flew open. The car was moving again, and Edward's eyes were on the road. I was panting… had I been making noises? God, I could feel the blood thumping through me veins, I was so turned on.

"I can smell it when you… when you're…" Edward faltered. I stared at him, he was eerily still, even for a vampire. Oh, he wasn't breathing… he didn't want to smell my… desire. Good. I hoped he was hurting.

I curled back into my seat and thought of Jake some more, sweet, tender thoughts this time, quiet moments when he whispered sweet nothings to me… eventually I fell asleep.

I felt a little refreshed when I woke up. The world outside the window was pitch black, the little clock on the dash said 4.07am. My radio station was on, and I leaned over to turn it up a little. Jake and I had listened to this show before, giggling at the strange music they played in the dead of night. I hummed along to an old, old version of 'Wimoweh" and tried to imagine what Jake would be doing, right now. Was he listening to this song too? The thought was comforting, and I snuggled into my seat.

From what I could see in the headlights, the scenery had changed. There were lots of trees, it was almost as green as Forks, but the trees were different. I rolled down my window and sniffed the air. It was insanely hot and humid. I wondered if we had gotten into the swampy areas of the southern states. I didn't really know much about the south, I had read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' of course, and seen TV's version of rednecks, but I had never been this far towards the equator.

The road was bumpy beneath the tires, and the air had a moist, sweet smell to it. I leaned my head against the headrest, and started prepared myself for another long, boring stretch of road, when a house came into view. Low, long and modern, it lay close to the ground, big square windows running along the front of it.

The lights were on.

Edward pulled up in front of the building, and turned off the engine. "Here we are!" He said brightly, as though we had just arrived at the beach for a holiday. I swallowed against my nerves. This was it, my prison for the foreseeable future. On shaky legs, I stepped out of the car and stared. A big old barn was just visible against the trees. The air rang with the songs of crickets.

I couldn't have run, even if I had wanted to, my knees were jelly. Edward pulled our bags from the car and gestured for me to walk ahead of him. I was running completely on auto-pilot. The fact that that I had truly been kidnapped, that I was going to be held against my will for the foreseeable future, finally hit home. I felt my brain shut down, the way it had when I thought Quil was going to kill me. I wasn't scared, or angry, but I felt like I was sitting inside my own head, peering out at the house through glass eyes. I made my way up a gravel path, the crunching of the stones loud in my ears. The over-sized front door was pale wood, I was just reaching out for the handle when it opened.

A woman was silhouetted in the doorframe. Lithe and beautiful and obviously a vampire, she sneered down at me, hatred all over her face. I baulked, stepping backwards into Edward as my instincts told me to get out of her reach. I was so numb that I didn't even flinch when his hand came up to my waist to steady me. He chuckled softly in my ear, and greeted the woman in a pleasant, friendly voice.

"Hello, Irina."


	5. Chapter 5

I stood in the massive walk-in closet and seethed.

The drawers in front of me were open, their contents spilling out onto the floor… every single item was _small._

Tiny sundresses hung on hangers, short shorts were folded neatly into drawers. There were dozens of tank tops and t shirts, but they were all _little. _All either slinky, or lacy, or sheer… some would show midriff, others just had spaghetti straps with _low _cut necklines…. FOR FUCKS SAKE, there were even some boob tubes! There wasn't a decent cotton T shirt, or a pair of jeans, even a pair of decent shoes in the whole place!

The underwear was even worse. It was all small, pink, see-through and _sexy._ I wanted to throw up. I clutched at the white towel that was wrapped around my body, and took a deep breath… noting with anger that the towel was less revealing than any of these 'clothes' would be. Gritting my teeth, I scooped up a wad of the offending garments and stormed out of the room to the main area of the house, to where Edward was stretched out on one of the long, low sofas, reading…

"Is this your idea of a fucking _joke?" _I screeched.Edward stared at me, making no attempt to shield himself as I threw the armful of slinky fabric into his face. "You _kidnap _me, then expect me to dress like a _cheap_ _whore? _Is this for your entertainment? Is this what you find amusing? Is _this…_" I snatched one of the scraps back, holding it up, the light coming through the sheer fabric "…what you find attractive?"

His face remained impassive, as always. "I didn't choose your clothes, Bella. I'm sorry if you don't share Irina's taste…"

"_Irina?! Ha!" _I snorted. "No wonder… I suppose it makes sense that a psychotic bitch chose this trash." I dropped the tiny excuse for a dress on the floor and turned on my heel to stalk back to _my _room_, _slamming the door closed behind me.

I couldn't hear any movement outside the door as I climbed back into bed, but then, I wouldn't hear anything unless he wanted me to.

"This sucks." I growled to myself, before fumbling around in the sheets to find the TV remote.

It was a _big_ TV, a huge, sleek, obnoxious thing that took up half the wall at the foot of thebed. A pale blue cabinet ran the length of the wall beneath it, absolutely full of DVDs, more than I could possibly watch in a year… Because he obviously expected me to spend a long time in this room… The thought made me sick.

Staring blankly at _Breakfast at Tiffany's_, but not really absorbing any of the film, I tried not to give in to the crushing anxiety that was slowly trying to choke me. _I need to get out of here. _I could feel it… it made me _itch. _My skin crawled, my palms prickled with the _need _to escape. Little fizzes of colour spangled in my peripheral vision, threatening to cloud my eyes, threatening to blind me. My heart was thudding in my throat, so fast and so hard I could hear it. I swallowed, took a deep breath, and held it, desperate to stave off a panic attack, unwilling to be any more vulnerable than I already was.

I jumped at a sudden rapping… "_Bella?" _

"What?" I snarled, tugging the sheet up around me further.

"_Can I come in?_"

"Oh, so _now _you care about propriety?" I sneered. "Sure, Edward, come into my gilded cell… make yourself at home."

The door cracked open, and Edward, looking as perfect and unperturbed as ever, slid silently into the room to stand over my bed. "Irina has gone to get you some clothes more suited to your tastes."

"Good."

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes." I figured he wouldn't poison me…

"What do you feel like?"

I thought for a second… what _did _I feel like? I should keep my strength, ideally… something with iron… "Steak…" I said carefully, "with a salad."

He nodded. "Medium?" It was a question, but it sounded like a statement.

"Rare." I shot back. I tried not to think of Jacob, who had his steak as bloody as he could get it.

Edward just nodded and silently left the room, closing the door behind him.

I sank back into the pillows and resumed staring vacantly at the television. Things had turned out even worse than I had anticipated… It was one thing to try plan an escape from one crazy vampire… but _two? _I had to get rid of Irina somehow…

I knew she hated me. She had said as much the night before, snarling threats at me while I stood, swaying with exhaustion, in the lounge. She wanted to spill my blood, she didn't even want to feed on me. She wanted my death to be a complete waste, just as my life apparently was… she wanted to kill me, then take my head to Jacob, to break his heart before she ripped it out of his chest with her perfectly manicured hands.

She was insane. Of that much I was certain. A shiver of fear ran through me… I was being held prisoner in a house with two psychotic vampires… there was no way this could be real. I had to be dreaming… or in a coma. Maybe I was pulled too late from the water, when I jumped off the cliff in La Push? Maybe I came off my bike in some horrific accident? Hell… maybe Tyler's van had just squished me that day, and all of this Vampire/Werewolf stuff was just random neurons firing off as I lay inert in some hospital bed somewhere?

But then, if there was no relationship with Edward… there was no relationship with Jacob… and there was nothing as real as Jacob's hands. I closed my eyes… I could picture them perfectly. Huge, dark, with long life-lines and square nails. He had calluses on his palms, and a scar on the back of his thumb that matched one of mine. I felt for it, the little crease of skin that ran just under the metacarpal joint. It had to be real, didn't it?

"Of _course _it's real." I whispered to myself, angry. I _couldn't _do this to myself… if I was going to get out of here, I needed to stay sane, I couldn't let fear paralyse me, I needed to be active, to keep my wits about me…

So… I had to think about this rationally, not let myself space out… I took a deep breath, my eyes still closed, and concentrated.

What did I know? I knew my _quarters. _I had a massive bedroom, with sound-proof, bullet proof glass in the windows (which didn't open). Cool air pumped into the room via an air-conditioning system… ok… cool… I had to investigate how noise travelled through that. That was something I could work on.

Off the bedroom was the dressing-room, and through that was the bathroom. These had no windows, but large sky-lights. As far as I could tell, there were no video cameras or anything. But I'd have to check those air-conditioning vents. _Yuck_. The idea of being watched like gave me the heebies… I pushed the thought away and continued to think.

I had a TV, but couldn't get any actual channels… I _could _listen to the radio, though. I hadn't seen a phone at all, but Edward and Irina both had cell-phones… They probably had internet on those, or maybe they had laptops? There was no computer as far as I had seen…

Could I get a look in their rooms? Edwards would be easy… but I doubted I'd be able to snoop on Irina, she was too wary of me. Asides from that, the rest of the house was open, airy… like the Cullen's place in Forks, but with lower ceilings, and just the one story.

The walls seemed solid… at first I had hoped that they were that concrete-over-polystyrene stuff – Dad had told me one that you could kick a hole through that if you were determined enough – but they seemed far more substantial than that. That was something else I'd investigate…

The whole place was surrounded by flat ground with pale grass. The barn I had seen the night before was flanked by the trees that hemmed around the clearing… they were the wrong trees though, their trunks weren't wreathed in moss, mist wasn't hanging under their branches… I sighed, turning my eyes from the window. Whoever thought I'd miss Forks' _trees? _

I forced myself to keep thinking… wishing I could write this all down, but not daring to. Ok, so we were obviously somewhere where Edward could hunt. How far into the woods were we? I wished I had woken earlier the previous night… I wished I'd seen how long it had been before we turned off the main road. For all I knew, I could have been a days walk from anywhere.

It took me a while to realise I could taste blood. I touched my finger to the tip of my tongue and stared when it came away smeared with red. I had been chewing so hard at my lip that I had broken the skin. _Shit. _I shivered. The last thing I needed was for Edward to get a whiff of my _singing _blood… or Irina, for that matter… she didn't possess Edward's self control. The only thing stopping her from tearing my head off the night before had been Edward…

… oh.

I smiled. Irina wanted to kill me… why did it take so long for me to realise that was a _good _thing?


	6. Chapter 6

Jacob's POV

_I need to run… _

I didn't really _think _that… it just was. Like the dry scraping at the back of a parched throat, or the heaviness of exhausted eyelids.

I _needed _to run. I needed to move… my muscles _screamed _at me to tear out into the forest… but I was stuck in La Push. I was too much of a _liability_, according to Sam. He needed me and my fury out of the way while he talked with the Cullens. So I was left alone to stalk around my house, pacing a furious circuit through the rooms, my sleep-deprived mind whirling.

I vaguely registered the sound of a car pulling up, but was too distracted to think about it until footfalls echoed up the stairs.

_Please be the cops. Please say you found her…_

There was a firm knock on the front door. "_Jake_!"

_Mike. _I sighed. Great. He probably wanted to commiserate in mutual mourning for our lost loves. I bared my teeth. What did he want? To rub salt in the wound? I considered ignoring him, but was at the door before I had come to a decision.

He looked like shit.

His face was twisted with desperation. His eyes looked wild, his skin flushed… he stared at me for a second, distrust flitting across his features before he pushed past me into my house. "Hey!" I barked.

"What is Edward?" He hissed breathlessly, a steely determination showing up beneath the fear. He shook his head, frustrated when I just stared at him. "_Tell me!"_

I flicked the door shut and stepped over to collapse onto my sofa. I was coming to _hate _that sofa, with its million memories of Bella. "What are you on about, Mike?" I forced myself to sound bored, forced myself to resist the sudden temptation to tell Mike everything.

He stood over me, glaring. "Don't pull that shit with me, Jake. _Your_ girlfriend's gone too, remember? If you know something, you have to tell me." His voice was low, level, full of anger.

Sighing, I closed my eyes. _My girlfriend was gone. _My Bella… _My _Bella was in the hands of a madman. She was more than just my girlfriend, she was… everything. I would lay down my life for her if I had to. I would _kill _for her. I _had _killed for her… I would do anything I possibly could to keep her safe, but I had still failed… "I can't tell you." I heard myself say. "I want to, but I can't."

"_You have to_."

I shrugged, what could I do? I was bound by the alpha command to keep my mouth shut. "I _can't_… I couldn't even tell Bella."

He gasped. "You let her…"

"She guessed before they started dating." I could hear the resignation in my voice. Why hadn't I turned earlier? Why hadn't I kept her from him? If I had just gotten over my nervousness earlier, I could have started dating her first, stopped her from ever getting involved in his shit…

"So if I guess… will you tell me?"

I stilled at that. That was the loophole. I _could_ talk to him about it if he already knew… I nodded, slowly, my eyes still shut.

There was a pause, a stillness, before he whispered. "I feel crazy asking this… but… is he…" he _gulped_, "a vampire?"

It was my turn to pause. Should I do this? Did he really have a right to know? It wasn't his world, was it? This weird, night-time world of shape shifting and blood drinking? But then, his girlfriend was lying in a hospital bed… "Been doing your homework?"

"It's _true?_" He was stunned, understandably. I nodded, suddenly tired. It was all too much. Sometimes I didn't believe it myself. I was a _werewolf, _and my girlfriend had been kidnapped by a _vampire_. I pinched myself sometimes, to make sure that I wasn't asleep, caught in some horrible nightmare…

"And you?" Mike was staring, his face had gone oddly pale.

"Not _that _much homework, I see." I leaned my head back, closed my eyes. My heart was thumping, making me swallow convulsively. I knew what I was doing was wrong, that letting Mike know was _wrong_… but I couldn't stop myself.

"W-wolf." He stammered.

I nodded. There was a thump as Mike lowered himself to the floor, sitting cross-legged, his head in his hands. "You're the good guys?" He asked, his voice weak.

"Yeah."

"OK."

There was a long silence. I could hear Mike trying to control his breathing, I could smell the fear on him. Fear and misery. Jesus… he must really love that Julie.

"What do we do?" He asked eventually. "How do we find her? How do we kill him?"

I laughed. "We?" Honestly… what did this kid think he could do? "Nothing. We don't do a single _fucking _thing. _I_ wait until I get told what to do… then I do it. You go sit the bedside vigil. Go tend to Julie…"

"Fuck you." He spat. He was staring at me now, his bloodshot eyes wide with rage. I just closed my eyes, regretting letting him in the door. I had no idea what I was doing, I was a fucking moron, letting Mike in on the truth like that… How could I get myself out of this?

Fuck it… honesty is always the best policy, right?

"Mike…" I started. "I _can't _do anything. I'm under orders. I have no choice, no help, no where to start from. I _have _to wait for something to come up… but then I'll go find her. I'll find her, and him, and I'll make sure he pays for what he did to Julie…" _and Bella. I'll castrate him for taking her from me, for scaring her… and if he's hurt her… _but a picture of Esme's terrified face flashed into my mind and guilt assailed me. I took a deep breath.

"I'll let you know as much as I can… but there's nothing you can do."

Silence. I could smell Mike's fear, his frustration. I could hear the pounding of his heart as he tried to stave off a panic attack. We must have sat there for half an hour, not saying a word. Of all things, I started to drift off… I welcomed it, sleep was hard to come by, but a tinny ringing jolted me awake.

Mike fumbled around in his pocket, staring at the screen of his cell phone with wide eyes before he answered it. "Yeah? Hello?"

"_Mike!" _There was a woman on the other end of the line, her voice high, rushed. "_She's woken up! She's awake and lucid. Where are you?"_

I don't think I'll ever forget the look on his face when he heard that. I heard the surge of blood in his veins, the hitch in his breath when he grasped what Julie's mum was saying.

"I'll be right there. Right there." He clicked the phone shut and stumbled to his feet. "She's awake." He marveled, grinning at me. "I'm…"

"Just go." I waved a hand at him, happy for him, but… jealous.

"This isn't over." He glared, but it was a half-assed effort. He was far too elated to really glower at me.

"Sure. Later…" I shrugged. "Go see your woman."

The door slammed shut behind him, and his car went speeding off seconds later. "Huh…" I mumbled. "He's fast for a human."

But I just kept sitting there, awake again, a heavy kind of weight in my head. My Bella was gone. What I had told Mike was true… I had no way of finding her. I had no idea where she was…

"_Shit_." I swallowed. It felt like a stone was lodged at the back of my throat, like there was a rock in my stomach.

She was really gone. Julie was back, but Bella was still gone. At least Mike had been able to see his girlfriend, to talk to her, to try get through to her. I had spent four days knowing that with every second, _My _Bella was being taken further away from me… and I didn't even have a way to get a message to her, to let her know I was still here, still waiting for her, that I wouldn't give up on her…

She'd left me a message. She'd left me that song.

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine._

_You make me happy, when skies are grey._

_You'll never know dear, how much I love you._

_Please don't take my sunshine away._

I rubbed the pricklings of tears from my eyes with the backs of my hands. She was so perfect… she knew exactly what to do, what to say, to let me know… 

… I swallowed again. She must be so afraid… and what could _I_ do? Sing at the moon?

I had the oddest feeling I was missing something. Maybe it was just a sense of disbelief… music had become the backdrop to our lives. She danced, she sang, we fell asleep at night with my rattly old radio blaring.

She especially loved the late-night DJ's and their strange playlists. She'd giggled at the bizarre music they played in the middle of the night. I could picture her, all heavy-eyed and smelling of sex, her head on my chest, her mouth curving into a smile as she murmured along to the lyrics of whatever old song they were playing.

_Little Red Riding Hood, _

_You sure are looking good,_

_You're everything that a Big Bad Wolf could want._

She'd almost wet herself laughing when that one had come on. "_I'll always think of you when I hear this." _She'd snickered, peppering kisses down the ticklish parts of my ribs, making my skin hum as her hands travelled up the insides of my arms. "_You're my Big Bad Wolf…"_

I squeezed my eyes shut to try block out the rest of that memory, my heart thudded with hurt. I _hoped _she was thinking of me… I hoped she heard that song… I hoped she was listening to our station…

… our station… of course!

The sofa lurched backwards as I leaped onto my feet. Our station!


End file.
